


A Little Less Pete Wentz A Little More Get Away From Me

by orphan_account



Category: Fall Out Boy
Genre: Early FOB - Freeform, F/M, Fall Out Boy/Reader, Reader is p much a huge tsundere, Reader-Insert
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-15
Updated: 2015-07-28
Packaged: 2018-04-04 11:19:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 15,568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4135488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You were just a college student trying to keep everything balanced, until he came in and tipped it all out of control.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. I can't believe you stole a hat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Your boring night at work takes an unexpected turn.

You sighed for what had to be at least the eighth time that hour. You really needed to start watching yourself—especially after your boss had given you a lecture about the importance of “keeping a ‘friendly attitude’ for the customers”. She’d made you promise that you would work on it. You let out another sigh. Just not today.

With half-lidded eyes you scanned the shelves and racks of clothing and accessories that surrounded you. Mismatched piles and unfolded clothes laid here and there, something that would have to be fixed later. The urge quit your job was strong from just looking at the mess, but being a full-time student living paycheck-to-paycheck didn’t give you a lot to choose from.

You definitely couldn’t say it was the worst job you’d ever had, although it did come pretty close. Most of the time it was only you and _maybe_ one other girl working, and the customers never seemed to understand that. The minimum wage definitely wasn’t worth it, but you still had to make money somehow.

Your eyes hovered over the digital time display at the bottom of your computer screen. You sighed again. There was still a whole hour left until it was time to close the store and go home. You looked out at the mess in front of you, taking a couple seconds to gather the motivation needed to start cleaning it up. With a groan, you pushed off from the counter and began returning the shop to its original state.

* * *

Pushing a lock of hair out of your eyes, you folded a purple-colored polo and put it back on its stack. That was the last one—the store was finally clean. You smiled to yourself as you walked back over to the counter, hoping it was finally time to close the shop and go home. You let out another groan as you saw what time it actually was. There was still another twenty-five minutes left before your shift ended.

You slammed your forehead against the counter top in disappointment, which wasn’t that bright of idea in hindsight. You really doubted any customers would come in this late, and you knew from past experience that sitting and waiting for the clock to change was just about the slowest and most painful way to pass the time. You pulled out the notes from your foreign language class a bit reluctantly, but you figured you’d rather force yourself to study now instead of later when you actually had other things to do.

It was only five minutes later when the bell signaling a new customer tore your attention away from the conjugation charts you had been memorizing. A flash of anger burned through you as you groaned. Who the hell was coming in fifteen minutes before closing time? You narrowed your eyes into a glare as you got up to go greet whoever had come into the store. 

However, your eyes soon widened in surprise as you saw a guy who looked about your age. You couldn’t help noticing his dark clothing and the tattoos covering his arms, making him stick out like a sore thumb in the otherwise colorful shop. You sighed again as you approached him. You had a feeling he was going to cause trouble for you.

“Can I help you?” you asked him, not quite putting enough effort into making your voice sound sincere. Your blunt voice pulled his attention away from the random piece of clothing he was looking at. Your tired eyes met his bright brown ones as he turned his head to face you. Your mind wandered for a bit—you were pretty sure you had never seen such a vibrant shade of brown before. As pissed off as you were, you couldn’t deny that whoever had wandered into your store wasn’t exactly the most unattractive person you’d ever seen.

Although now that you noticed it, his pretty eyes seemed a little unfocused. And he still hadn’t answered you.

“Are you drunk?” A twinge of pain shot through your head as you felt the beginning of a headache begin to take hold. Yeah, slamming your head against the counter had definitely not been a good idea.

After an awkwardly long pause, the stranger finally bursted out, “Do you guys have hats?”

“Hats?” you mumbled out dumbly, caught unaware by his sudden question. 

“Yeah,” he answered, unsteadily looking around the store. “Do you have any?”

“Um, yeah, we do. Right over here.” Leading with an outstretched arm and a pointed finger, you guided him over to the hat rack. You were careful to walk slowly and keep an eye on him—he was definitely well past tipsy and you did _not_ need a lawsuit tonight.

Speaking of lawsuits, you were pulled from your thoughts by the person behind you as your ears were alerted by a muffled yell. You immediately spun around, only to almost be knocked to the ground by your customer. Yep, he was certainly drunk enough to trip over his own feet. Somehow you managed to keep the two of you upright, despite the fact he easily weighed more than you, and you couldn’t remembered the last time you had worked out.

Your felt your face flush as you suddenly realized what position the you two were in. Your arms were wrapped tight around his torso and holding on tightly to keep him from falling to the ground. His body slumped against yours, while his head laid limp on your shoulder.

Oh god, he hadn’t passed out, had he?

“Hey… you could at least buy me a drink first…” the stranger sloppily mumbled into your neck. You let out a mixed sound of relief and disgust as you roughly pushed him off of you and back onto his own two feet.

“You definitely don’t need anymore to drink,” you scolded dryly, giving him an irritated glare. Another pang shot through your head as you felt your headache worsen, causing you to cringe and pull your fingers up to your temples.

“C’mon… You’re way too hot to make an ugly face like that.”

You opened your eyes to see him smirking back at you, like he’d just delivered the pick up line of the century.

“How did you even manage to get here? Do you need to call someone?” As much as you wanted to never see this guy again, you didn’t want to be at the end of a missing persons case.

“Wait,” he grunted, taking his attention away from you and unsteadily starting to walk again, “I need to get a hat for Patrick first.”

You groaned internally. You were tempted just to kick him out, but you guessed that there wasn’t much of a chance that he was going to listen to you. And who the hell was Patrick?

“...Patrick?” you echoed flatly, cautiously following him over to the hat rack.

“Patrick Stump,” he stated simply, spinning the rack and examining each hat, concentrating surprisingly hard on which was the perfect one, considering his inebriated state.

You rolled your eyes. “Oh, yeah, him. Of course.” You mentally cursed Patrick Stump, whoever he was, for indirectly making you deal with his drunken friend.

“He’s mad at me,” he told you. He picked up a snapback and inspected it for a few moments before returning it to the stand. “So I’m getting a hat for him.”

“How sweet of you.”

“I know,” the stranger smiled and nodded satisfactorily, apparently too drunk to pick up your sarcasm.

You picked up a pink beanie with the word “princess” embroidered across it, deciding you might try to make something of the situation you were in. Smiling slyly, you held up the hat for him to see.

“How about this one?” you offered, praying he was drunk enough to agree with you.

He turned his head to see what was in your hand, wobbling a bit at the sudden motion. “Patrick would never wear that,” he sneered before turning back to the other hats. Your smile flatlined as you threw the hat back. Couldn’t you just have one thing?

You let out a heated sigh as you turned around and walked back to the counter, deciding that you might as well clean up your things and be ready to leave whenever he finally picked out a hat for his friend.

You retrieved your bag from the back room and packed your notes up into it. You took out your phone to check and see if you had gotten any notifications during your shift. Technically, you weren’t supposed to be on it during work, but you really doubted the drunk guy was going to come yelling at you like your boss would.

Your phone screen lit up as soon as your thumb pressed down on the power button. You saw your roommate, Allie, had texted you a long rant about a professor that she often complained about to you. You were almost too ticked off by your own problems to think about hers at the moment. But, you still read the text, being thankful that you hadn’t chosen the same major as her and therefore never had to suffer through a class of his.

You were almost to the end of the message when your attention was ripped away by the buzzing of the alarm system. Your head shot up, finding the stranger halfway out the door, holding a black fedora in his hands.

“Hey, asshole!” you shouted at him, far past the point of patience. “You have to pay for that!”

“Put it on my tab!” he yelled back with a grin before running out the door and down the sidewalk

Fuming, you shot out from behind the counter and sprinted for the door. You were almost there when, much to your luck, your foot caught the edge of a table and sent you sprawling to the floor. You let out a stream of curses as you scrambled to get back to your feet and practically tore the door open. You madly turned your head from side to side looking for the thief as you shot out onto the pavement, but you could only see empty streets.

Frustrated beyond belief, you felt yourself tear up. You had always hated how easy of a crier you were, especially when you were angry. You made your way back into the store and tried to calm yourself down. It was just a hat; hopefully your boss wouldn’t even notice it was gone. And if she did, how would she know it was your fault?

With that thought in mind, you finally closed up the shop and wearily made your way back to your apartment, cursing the stranger and Patrick Stump all the way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading!!


	2. I can't believe your friend brought the hat back

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You meet up with the last person you wanted to see.

Boy, had you been wrong.

Your boss found out the very next day.

You showed up for your shift as usual, praying that she hadn’t noticed anything was missing. And she hadn’t—that was until a certain someone came in and ruined everything for you.

You stifled a yawn as you scanned a pair of skinny jeans. The last customer in the store was (finally) checking out, and then your afternoon rush would officially be over. You bid the customer goodbye as they left with a bagful of clothes and a slightly lighter wallet. Closing the door to the cash register, you checked the time on your computer screen. You groaned as you realized you still had two hours left before your shift ended, but you reminded yourself to be grateful for that fact that you didn’t have to stay until close again.

You began to sigh just before you see your boss folding some shirts out of the corner of your eye. You paused and held your breath for a moment, before thinking “fuck it” and letting the air out of your lungs. Your boss didn’t notice, you weren’t even really that close to her, but it was an act of rebellion against her and her stupid store.

You were about to go and help her when the bell attached to the front door went off. Bringing your attention over to the customer who’d just entered, you went to go and greet them. As you walked over, you saw it was a boy who looked like he was a couple years younger than you, wearing simple clothing and a cute little beanie on his blond covered head. He looked around the store a little awkwardly, as if he wasn’t quite sure what to do. You inwardly gushed at how adorable he looked—until you noticed the black fedora clenched in his hands.

You felt your stomach drop as you approached him. _That can’t seriously be what I think it is_ , you thought to yourself.

“C-can I help you?” you stuttered out, mentally hitting yourself for screwing up four words. Even though your mind was buzzing, you couldn’t help but notice that the boy looked even more nervous than you did.

“Um,” he began after a short pause, fiddling with the hat between his pale hands. “Last night, my friend came in and took this-”

Your ears tuned out as your worst fear was confirmed, and you were about to start panicking, until you realized who exactly you were talking to.

“You’re Patrick Stump?” you said a little too harshly, cutting Patrick off from whatever he was saying. He visibly paled at your tone and pointed glare, turning his already pasty skin almost white.

“U-um, y-yes?” he stammered anxiously, breaking eye contact with you and instead moving his blue eyes down to stare holes in the floor. Normally you would have felt bad for being mean to such a cute little guy, but it definitely had not been long enough for you to be over last night.

“Listen,” you hissed, lowering your voice so your boss wouldn’t hear, “do you have any idea how much shit I had to put up with last night because of you?”

You continued to glare at him while he stuttered out something along the lines of an apology, holding the fedora even tighter in his hands and refusing to look up past your shoes.

“Apology not accepted,” you spat out, holding out your hand. “Just give me the h-”

“(Y/N), is everything okay over here?”

You froze in mid-sentence as the voice of your boss rang out, a slight passive-aggressive undertone sticking to it. You wiped the look of panic off your face as you turned around to see your boss standing with her arms crossed over her chest. You opened to mouth as your mind tried to make up some bull shit story to get her off your back, but Patrick beat you to it.

“I-I’m really sorry,” he apologized again, this time managing to take his eyes off the floor and look up at your boss, before the story gushed out of his mouth, almost too fast for the two of you to pick up what he was saying. He clenched his eyes tight as he held out the hat to your boss and stammered another apology.

You cursed him again, only this time mentally. She sent you a glare so heated you wanted to run out the door and never look back, but you felt like that just might be more humiliating than how much you were going to be yelled at in a bit.

A little too calmly, your boss thanked him for bringing the hat back and took it out of his hands, which were now shaking the smallest bit. She turned around to go put the hat back. Using the few moments she wasn’t facing you, in a rush of anger, you gave Patrick the dirtiest look you could imagine while sticking up your middle finger.

The little blond gave you a terrified look before sprinting out of the shop, almosting running into the door before hitting the pavement and getting as far away from you as possible. With that being over, you turned to your boss, preparing yourself for the biggest chewing out of your life.

* * *

You resisted the urge to pull out your hair as you practically stomped down the concrete sidewalk. Letting out a sigh, you shoved your hands into your jacket pockets and told yourself to be thankful that you hadn’t gotten fired. No, you hadn’t lost your job, but by the way your boss had been screaming at you, you had thought there was no way in hell that you would even be _allowed_ in the store again.

You’d finished the last two hours of your shift, trying to appease your boss by cleaning up the store as soon as someone had messed something up and being extra cheerful to customers. Technically, that was all stuff you were supposed to be doing anyways, but nobody was perfect. It had helped slightly, but you still couldn’t get out of the store fast enough once your shift was over.

You’d calmed down a little bit, but your headache from the day before was back and pounding against your head harder than ever. As you walked to the general store near your apartment to get some pain pills, you thought back to the boy who’d brought the hat back, Patrick. Now that you weren’t absolutely seething in rage, you were starting to feel bad for the way you’d treated him, especially since he was actually nice enough to return the hat.

You made a promise to yourself that you would apologize to him if you ever saw him again, although you were pretty sure that even if you did meet him again he wouldn’t stick around long enough for you to even get in an “I’m sorry”.

 _Poor little guy_ , you thought one last time before leaving the topic behind as you entered into the brightly-lit store. Making your way over to the medicine aisle, you noticed how the store was almost empty even though the sun was just barely beginning to go down.

Turning into the aisle, you paused and groaned internally. Of course, even though almost no one was in the store, there was still some guy standing right in front of what you needed. You pretended to look at the selection of band-aids while you waited for him to hurry up and move. Sure, you could have just asked him politely, but you felt like you’d had enough social interactions for the day.

You snuck a look over at him to try and see if he was about to leave or not. You did a double take as your eyes landed on him, just realizing he had familiar dark hair and clothing that reminded you of the drunk man from last night. You looked closer and noticed his tattoos—he was the same guy from last night!

“You almost got me fired, you fucking asshole!” you shrieked as your mind filled with nothing but absolute anger. Without thinking, you ran at him while pulling your arm back and forming your hand into a fist. He turned to you with wide eyes and tried to put his hands up to cover himself, but he was too late. You drove your fist into his jaw, surprising yourself with how well you’d punched him. 

He fell back on the tiled floor, holding his cheek and groaning out curses directed at you. You, on the other hand, were jumping up and down while clutching hand to your chest and letting out your own string of swears for forgetting how much it hurt to punch someone in the face. You tried to move your fingers, hoping that nothing in your hand was broken. You definitely did _not_ need that today.

“Hey, what the hell was that for?” the man in front of you demanded as he got up from the floor, his hand still cupped to his jaw.

You looked up from your hand to glare daggers at him, too pissed off to form any words into sentences. He glared back at you for a few moments, before the realization slowly set in.

“Oh- oh, fuck,” he stammered out as his eyes widened and his mouth formed into an “o”. “You’re the fucking girl from the store last night.”

“I’m shocked you were sober enough to remember that,” you spat out, crossing your arms over your chest.

Then it was your turned to be surprised as the man in front of you broke out into a fit of laughter. You just stood there silently for a few moments, trying to figure out what the hell was happening. Why was he laughing? Was he making fun of you?

You were about to open your mouth and cuss him out again when stopped and clutched his cheek out of pain, mumbling something about how it hurt to laugh.

“You really got me good,” he snorted, sending you a wink, to which you rolled your eyes at. “I guess I deserved that, huh?”

“You did,” you reply flatly, deadpanning him while he continues to smirk at you. He lets out another laugh, and you decide you’ve had enough. Pushing past him, you grabbed the bottle of pills you came for and started walking towards the self-checkouts.

“Hey! Hey, wait a second!” he calls out before jumping right in front of you, causing you to stop in your tracks to avoid running into him. “I didn’t catch your name; I’m Pete,” he says with an infuriating smile, holding out a hand you suppose he expects you to shake.

“Don’t care,” you muttered as you step around him and continue on your way. But Pete wasn’t deterred by your blunt behavior and kept following you around the store.

“C’mooon,” he whined as you scanned the barcode of the pill bottle across the machine. “You can’t stay mad at me forever. I can make it up to you!”

“You can make it up to me by fucking off.” You saw him pout out of the corner of your eye as you took out your wallet to pay for the pills. You sighed as you realized you were out of cash. Looked like you weren’t doing anything until you got your next paycheck, that was if you managed to keep your job until then. 

You pulled out your debit card and were about to swipe it through the machine when Pete came up behind you and ripped it out of your hand.

“Give me that, asshole!” you cursed as he held it up, laughing. You jumped and tried to grab it out of his hands but he was too tall for you, even though he wasn’t very tall himself. After a few more tries to get it, you gave up and stubbornly crossed your arms over your chest, waiting for him to give it back to you.

Still laughing slightly, he pulled the card down to read it.

“Your name is (Y/N)?” he said, shifting his gaze from the card to you. “That’s cute.”

You only responded with a glare as he gave the card back to you with a smirk. You slid the card through the machine, successfully this time, and put the receipt and the bottle into your bag. Pete, much to your annoyance, still continues to follow you out the door and onto the street, making stupid comments all the way.

“Hey, you never let me tell you how I was going to make it up to you, (Y/N),” he told you as he walked alongside you, matching your footsteps.

“Do I really want to know?” you asked, absentmindedly pulling out your phone to check if you had gotten any notifications.

“Of course you do!” he exclaimed, throwing his hands up for added effect. You just rolled your eyes and went to open up your messages, when, much like before, your phone was ripped out of your hand.

“What is your fucking problem?!” you shouted as you once again tried to jump up and grab the object out of his hands.

“My band and I are playing a show tomorrow,” he told you, somehow managing to type something into your phone and keep it away from you at the same time. “And,” a noise went off as he pressed the send button, “You’re gonna come watch us. Free of charge.”

With that same infuriating smile, he handed you back your phone. You snatch it out of his hand and look down at the screen. He had sent an address to an unfamiliar phone number—you assumed it was his. _Great_ , you groaned to yourself, _now he has my phone number_.

“You’re in a band?” you questioned. It wasn’t that hard to believe him, with all his tattoos and dark clothing. You bet it sucked.

“Yeah, it’s called Fall Out Boy,” he answered. “I play bass and write most of the lyrics.” You ignored the smirk you could see him giving you out of the corner of your eye.

“Never heard of it.”

“We’re not that popular,” he admitted with a sheepish grin, bringing a hand up to scratch the back of his neck, “Yet. Just give us a couple years, and we’ll be topping the charts. You’ll see.”

The absolute certainty in his voice got you to turn your head to look at him, finding the band member looking out into the slowly darkening sky with an expression of pure ambition. After a few moments, Pete turned his head back to you to give you another smile. For whatever reason (you didn’t really want to know) it didn’t make you angry like it had before.

You decided then that you might just be able to let your grudge go.

“Why do you even care?” you suddenly bursted out, before clamping a hand over your mouth.

“What?” he asked, just as surprised as you were.

Slowly, you strung together a response and removed your hand from over your mouth, albeit a bit hesitantly.

“Like… Why do you want to ‘make it up’ to me?” you asked, slowing your walk to a halt and making your eyes meet his.

“Because, well…” He paused for a moment, seemingly thinking over what to say next. “I just really hope you’ll bang me.”

You found yourself letting out a dry laugh as you rolled your eyes again.

“No way!” Pete shouted out, also laughing. “You can actually laugh?”

You shut your mouth and plastered your angry pout back onto your face, beginning to walk again. This time, Pete didn’t follow you.

“I’ll see you tomorrow!” he yelled from behind you, a smirk practically audible in his voice.

You just kept walking down the sidewalk, not turning around as you threw up a middle finger at him, to which you heard him respond with only another laugh. You felt the tiniest of smiles stretch across your lips. Oh God, what had you gotten yourself into?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you dont understand how hard it was to write the reader as being that mean to patrick. im so sorry


	3. Poptarts?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Your roommate is a pain in the ass.

You slumped against the back of your apartment door as it clicked shut, finally breathing in the fresh scent of your home. You were half-tempted just to slide down and sit on the floor right there, but the pain in your head was enough to motivate you into making your way to the kitchen to get a glass of water for your pills.

Pushing off from the door, you slipped off your shoes at the entryway and shuffled across the carpet over to the kitchenette. You opened one of the cabinets, wincing a bit at the rusty creak of the old hinges, and took out the first cup you saw. Filling it up with water from the faucet, you took the bottle of pills and practically tore off the cap, gratefully spilling two of them into your hand and swallowing them with a gulp of water.

Stuffing the pills in the cabinet and the cup in the sink, you let out a sigh of relief as your headache finally started to fade away.

“(Y/N)! Where the hell have you been?”

You spun around at the call of your name to find your roommate glaring back at you, her arms crossed over her chest. You cursed mentally, just then remembering that you had been about to open a text from Allie when Pete snatched your phone from you, and then you had completely forgotten about it.

“My bad…” you smiled sheepishly, hoping she wasn’t seriously mad at you. “I kinda got caught up with someone.”

“Someone…?” Allie mumbled, giving you a suggestive glance. “Was it a boy?”

“Well, yeah, I mean, technically, but-”

“Oh my god, (Y/N)!” she practically screamed, cutting you off, as she grabbed hold of your arm and dragged you into the living room.

“Allie, it’s not like that-”

“You have to tell me everything!”

You groaned as she pulled the two of you onto the couch, trying to tell her that it wasn’t a big deal, but she wasn’t listening. 

“Fine!” you broke out, interrupting her plea of how you had to tell her what had happened. She stopped immediately and shut her mouth, prompting you to go on. You took a moment to recollect your story, situating yourself into a cross-legged position on the couch.

“I saw the guy that stole the hat yesterday,” you said bluntly, watching Allie’s eyes go wide.

“No way! What did you do?”

“I, uh, punched him.”

Allie looked at you for a moment in disbelief, before throwing back her head in laughter.

“Y-you, (Y/N), actually p-punched someone?” she snorted, wiping a tear from under her eye. “You’re lying.”

“I’ll punch you too if you don’t shut up!” you threatened stubbornly, throwing up a fist for added effect.

“Okay, whatever, (Y/N),” your friend giggled, rolling her eyes. “Anything else happen?”

You told her about how annoying he was and how he wouldn’t take a hint and leave you alone, and how he said he’d “make it up to you” by letting you into one of his band’s shows.

“He’s in a band?” Allie asked after you had finished, tilting her head to the side. “What band is it?”

You took a moment to try and remember what he had told you. “Fall Out Boys, I think?”

“Never heard of it.”

“Yeah, me neither.”

“Well, are you gonna go, then?”

“I don’t think so,” you told her, letting out a dry laugh. “I think I’ve seen enough of that guy in the past two days to never have to see him again.”

“(Y/N)!” Allie yelled without warning, shocking you as she grabbed both of your shoulders and shook them slightly. “You have to go!”

“What? Why?” you asked, exasperated by her sudden behavior.

“This is the first time in, like, forever that you actually have a shot with a guy!”

“Okay, first of all, ouch,” you deadpanned, pushing her off of you. “Second of all, it’s not like that. At all.”

“Sure, (Y/N),” she teased sarcastically, “because that totally doesn’t sound like he’s into you. Is he cute?”

“I-I mean I guess, kind of? But I don’t care if he likes me,” you argued, feeling your face heat up a bit. “I’m not looking for anyone right now.”

“Oh my goood, (Y/N),” Allie dragged out, making it obvious that she thought whatever you were saying was ridiculous. “You can’t seriously still not be over-”

“Of course I am!” you burst out, a flash of anger showing on your face.

“(Y/N), it’s been like a _year!_ ”

“I said I was over it!”

“Then why don’t you go on a date with band boy, or something?”

“It’s none of your business!” you snapped, getting up from the couch and stomping over to your room. You knew you were going to regret getting so worked up in the morning, but, for right now, you just couldn’t deal with anything else. You shut your door, trying not to slam it as hard as you wanted to, and buried yourself under the piles of pillows and blankets on your bed, calming yourself down enough to the point where you could fall asleep.

* * *

You woke up to Allie jumping on you.

“(Y/N)! Get up!” she screamed into your ear while you groaned for her to get off. “You’re going to that show today!”

You rolled over and tried to ignore her. She responded by shaking your shoulder as hard as she could, practically pulling you off the bed.

“Allie!” you screeched as you sat up, pushing her off of you and, accidentally, onto the floor.

“Damn, (Y/N),” laughed from the carpet, wincing slightly, “Are you still _that_ pissed from last night?"

“Are you really asking me that right now?” you deadpanned, your tired eyes adding to the intensity of your glare.

“Okay, okay, jeesh,” Allie surrendered, throwing her hands up with a sheepish smile. “I know I brought up some things last night that I shouldn’t have. I’m sorry.”

You kept glaring down at her, deciding whether or not that was good enough of an apology. You were still kind of pissed, but you figured you were definitely too old to still be holding petty grudges.

“You should be,” you muttered, your face breaking into a smile as you held your hand out to her. Allie accepted your help with a toothy grin, using your hand to pull herself back onto her feet.

“So, what are you gonna wear tonight?” she teased, sending you a wink.

You sent her a silent threat to shut up in the form of an eye roll as you pushed past her and made your way into the kitchen.

Your stomach grumbled. You were pretty sure you heard it say “poptarts”.

 _Poptarts it is_ , you thought, actively ignoring the sound of Allie stomping behind you. You went to open the cupboard door that was separating you from your delicious toaster pastries when the half-opened door was slammed shut by the girl behind you.

“Can I help you?” you huffed as you spun around, sticking your hands on your hips.

“(Y/N),” she grumbled, a definite crease forming in her brow. “You. Are. _Going_. To. That. Show.”

You groaned in response, too tired to really put up much of an argument. In retaliation, she groaned back at you. You just groaned again. And she also just groaned again.

The groaning match went on for at least a full minute before you finally gave in. You knew your roommate was more stubborn than you, and you really just wanted your damn poptart.

“Fine!” you yelled, breaking her off in mid-groan. “I’ll go to the fucking show. But I’m not going by myself.”

Her eyes lit up at your proposition.

“A free concert? You make that sound like it’s a bad thing, (Y/N)!”

You just grunted in response, turning away from her to retrieve the box of poptarts from the cupboard.

“So?” Allie sounded from behind you. “What time is it at? Where is it?”

You pushed down on the lever of the toaster.

“Dunno.”

“Well, look!” your roommate commanded, sending a spark of annoyance through you.

“Just let me finish making my goddamn poptart,” you snapped, flipping her off as you turned to glare at her for a few moments.

Allie only responded with an offended “hmph” before she turned away and sat herself down at the table to wait for you to make your breakfast.

A handful of seconds later, two golden, beautiful poptarts popped out of the toaster. Your stomach grumbled again as you inhaled the sweet scent of their sugary goodness. You hastily (partly because they were hot and partly because you couldn’t wait to eat them) pulled the poptarts out of the toaster and onto a plate.

Ignoring the impatient glare Allie was sending you, you walked over to the table and sat down, but not before taking your phone out of your pocketing and placing it next to your plate.

You pressed the home button, figuring you might as well get this over with while you waited for your breakfast to cool off.

You felt your eyes widen a little as your screen lit up to display a text from a random number. Except, it wasn’t a random number, you realized as you slid open the text to reveal it was from Pete. You made the conscious decision not to save his number into your phone, in the hopes that you wouldn’t ever need to have it saved.

You looked down at the message, hesitant to see what it said. You let out a little sigh of relief. It was just a message saying that he was excited for you to come see him play, followed by a bunch of seemingly random emojis.

“Ooh, is that from your boyfriend?” Allie teased from over your shoulder. You just ignored her by taking a bite of your poptart.

You had a bad feeling about this.

* * *

You felt your stomach lighten a little as you and Allie approached the show’s venue. There was actually a _line_. You figured there was going to be maybe twenty people max--but this had to be at least forty of fifty. You silently thanked nothing in particular; at least you could blend in with everyone and it wouldn’t be as awkward as you’d expected.

“Damn, (Y/N),” Allie whistled as you two reached the end of the line. “You didn’t tell me your boyfriend was _popular._ ”

“Allie,” you muttered, your voice filled to the brim with deathly seriousness, taking her by surprise. “I’ve already punched one guy. Do you really think I’m gonna hold myself back from punching you?”

You could tell she was biting back a snide comment, realizing, for once, that it was probably for the best if she kept her mouth shut.

You two slowly moved through the line, making conversation about what kind of music the band was going to play. You both agreed that it had to be at least somewhat decent, or else there wouldn’t be so many people coming to see them. You decided they were probably a punk band, based on what you knew about Pete (which wasn’t very much) and how the people around you looked. Allie, on the other hand, was guessing they were more of a metal band. Your debate (which may have gotten a little too heated at some points) continued until you both reached the head of the line.

Your argument was cut short by a man, who was practically as big as you and Allie were combined, stretching out a hand and asking for tickets.

You and Allie shared a nervous glance as he glared down at the two of you.

“C’mon, (Y/N),” she whispered anxiously, sending a shaky smile up to the man. “Give him the tickets already.”

“I-I don’t have any tickets,” you whispered back just as anxiously. You hadn’t really thought this far through, now that you were confronted with it. 

“Look, ladies,” the man grunted, causing the two of you to jump. “No tickets, no sh-”

“Woah, woah, woah!” another voice broke in.

A significantly smaller man shot out from behind the security guard. Oh no. It was him.

You felt your wide eyes fall into a deadpan as soon as your brain processed that fact.

“C’mon, dude, this is the girl I was telling you about!”

You felt your stomach flutter for a moment. He was talking about you? Wh-

Wait. You did a double take. Did you really just feel that. Did you really just have that thought. No way, there was no way. You decided to drop the topic and never speak of it again.

The bigger man just rolled his eyes and stepped aside to let you all through. Pete smirked at you, to which you responded with a glare, and took you by the arm to lead you into the venue.

You somehow managed to ignore your blushing and the sound of Allie failing to stifle a laugh behind you.

“I’m honestly pretty surprised you actually came,” Pete said with a dry laugh as the three of you came into the room just outside where the stage was.

“Yeah, well, my roommate over there,” you pointed a thumb back at Allie, “made me come.” She took a break from laughing long enough to send him a wave. He just responded with a wink before his attention was fixated back on you.

“Hey, so I have to go perform and everything,” he began, mimicking bass playing with his hands, “but come find me backstage after the show, okay?”

“Sure,” you answered flatly, the corners of your mouth tugging up the slightest.

He did a quick eye roll before sticking his pinky out in front of you.

“Promise?” he said, smirking as if he wasn’t even taking himself seriously.

You glanced between the fully grown adult standing in front of you and the finger he was pointing in your direction.

“Are you kidding me?” As ridiculous as the situation was, you couldn’t help but let out a laugh.

“Nope.” Pete shook his head, a crooked grin plastered to his face.

You stifled your laugh with a facepalm as you wrapped your pinky around his, giving it a shake for good measure. Pete let out a laugh, probably laughing at how embarrassed you were, before taking off to a door labeled “backstage”.

“See you after the show!” he called behind his shoulder as he disappeared behind the doorway.

“Oh my god, (Y/N)...” Allie breathed, breaking your attention away from the door. “He is hot as hell.”

You turned to her with a disgusted look on your face. “You can have him,” you told her, a bit uneasy at how you were completely sure you meant that.

Allie rolled her eyes. “I don’t think my girlfriend would like that.”

“Then shut the fuck up.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this chapter had more reader x poptart than reader x pete. i was originally gonna make it longer but its taking me forever to write so i just split up this one and the next one :*  
> also this is during tttyg era-ish? but smartphones and emojis exist. because  
> ALSO HAPPY SAME SEX MARRIAGE LEGALIZATION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (in america) ofc i couldnt write a fic without at least a lil gay in it  
> oh and thanks sm to everyone to left kudos!! you all rock


	4. Fall Out Boys?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Concert!

After shuffling through with the rest of the crowd, the two of you found a comfortable spot in the middle of the room. You wouldn’t admit it out loud, but you were actually starting to get excited to hear Pete’s band play. You could tell the crowd was starting to get hyped up too. 

A rush moved through your body as everyone’s cheering intensified. You attention turned to the stage, where the band was just entering. 

Pete was the first one out, a bass strapped around his shoulder. The next was Patrick carrying a guitar—reminding you of how awful you felt about the way you treated him yesterday and how you needed to apologize to him after the show. He looked even more tiny up on stage, you noticed with a small smile. Two others followed them on stage, one holding a guitar and the other drumsticks. 

You couldn't believe how wildly the crowd was cheering before they had even said anything, but you supposed if they had been your favorite band you would be doing the same thing. The four members took their positions, Pete at the right mic and Patrick in the middle. Your eyes widened a bit. You hadn't really thought about it, but you had just kind of figured that Pete fronted the band. You thought back to last night—no, he definitely had never told you that he sang. You were even more taken aback by the fact that Patrick was the lead singer. You found it kind of hard to imagine him in band, let alone leading a punk one.

“Hey, everybody!” Pete's voice brought your attention away from Patrick and over to him. He was standing in front of his mic, a lopsided smile stretched wide across his face. You noticed his crinkling eyes were scanning the crowd. He paused for a moment as everyone cheered, before his voice boomed through the mic again.

“Thank you all for coming!” he grinned, taking the microphone into his hands. His glowing eyes met yours, and the corners of his lips pulled up a little more. You felt that weird feeling in the pit of your stomach again. You decided to ignore it, and the splatter of pink on your cheeks.

Pete introduced his band—Fall Out Boy, not Fall Out Boys—and started off the first song. You felt yourself start to dance along with the crowd, matching the rhythm with ease. The beat of the song was fast and catchy and the guitars pulled you in with each chord.

Then Patrick opened his mouth and you were blown away by the deep, powerful music that came out. In no time you were jumping and fist pumping just as hard as the other people there, even though you didn't know any of the words to their songs.  
You felt the music take hold of your emotions, drawing out an indescribable mix of everything. Joy, all of you frustration and anger, your excitement—it all came out in the form of a shout that blended into everyone else’s.

You cheered and roared as the band ran around on stage, giving off just as much energy back to the crowd. The aura of the show was made tangible by the hot, sticky air clinging to the room, thickening more and more as the night went on.

Your cheeks started to get sore from the smile that was continuously plastered across your face. You couldn’t even hide the fact that you were actually enjoying yourself. A couple times throughout the past hour you and Pete had locked eyes, resulting in you trying to smother your smile while he just sent you a wink, seeing right through your attempt to hide how much fun you were having.

* * *

The band finished up the show a handful of songs later, leaving behind a mass of sweaty, screaming people. Now that they had left the stage and it was over, you suddenly realized just how disgusting the situation that you were in was. All throughout the show people had been shoving into you, but the music had made everything uncomfortable about it, from the gross people to the tiny, smelly room, worth it. Now, there was nothing to distract you, and you quickly grabbed Allie’s hand and pushed your way out of the crowd and back into the other room.

“That was fucking awesome!” your roommate yelled as soon as you guys could actually hear each other talk. “I can’t believe that little guy has such a strong voice!”

“That’s exactly what I was thinking!” you agreed with a laugh, thinking about how shy and timid Patrick had been when you met him. “But, god, their music was amazing… I never thought it would be _that_ good.” Biting your lip, you snuck a glance over to the door that led to the backstage. You definitely hadn’t forgotten that Pete had told you to come find him after the show, and it was getting harder and harder to ignore the fit of butterflies picking up in your stomach.

Allie noticed you looking over at the door. “ _Oh_ ,” she mouthed, raising an eyebrow while a smirk worked its way across her face. “Are you gonna go find your boyfriend now?” You turned back to her, a glare fixed in your expression.

“Would you fucking stop?!” you seethed, irritation pooling in your eyes. “He’s not-”

“Okay, whatever, (Y/N),” Allie interrupted with an eye roll, before turning towards the door to outside. She looked back over her shoulder. “See you at home! Don’t get into too much trouble!”

You uttered out a curse as you took a few steps to try and stop her, but she was already out the door and sprinting far away from you. You huffed. Looking for a new roommate was definitely at the top of your to-do list now.

Swallowing hard, you pushed past the stream of people just now leaving the concert hall and made your way over to the backstage door. You stopped in front of it, taking a few moments to try and sort out your emotions so you wouldn’t make a huge fool out of yourself.

What were you even going to say to him? “Hey, I was really hoping your band would suck because I’m still kind of pissed at you, but you were actually amazing?” You felt like that might not have the best effect. You could have just left right then and ditched him, but, you reminded yourself, he had your phone number. And, if you were being completely honest with yourself, you didn’t really want to leave without seeing him.

Deciding that you just needed to get it over with already, and beginning to realize that you probably looked pretty weird just standing in front of a door, you pulled it open and stepped into the hallway that led to backstage.

Slowly, you walked down the dimly lit, dingy hall. Your heart rate quickened with each step, easily matching what it had been during the show. You thanked no one in particular that it wasn’t bright enough for the massive blush you could feel burning on your cheeks to be noticeable. 

Your nervousness only intensified as the hallway shortened, until eventually the dirty tile ended and was replaced by glossy wood.

“Hey! (Y/N)!” Pete’s voice called out from a little ways over. You brought your attention up to where he was, waving at you while putting his bass in it’s case and seemingly interrupting Patrick mid-sentence.

Oh no.

You saw Patrick’s eyes go wide and his face pale as soon as your name left Pete’s mouth. Had you really scared him that badly? Normally you would be giving yourself a high-five, but he just seemed so small and innocent that you felt bad for ever losing your temper.

“P-Patrick! Wait!” you called out as you realized he was turning to run away from you. You pushed past Pete, who was no doubt completely baffled by what was happening, and grabbed onto Patrick’s arm. He turned around and froze, looking like a deer caught in the headlights.

“H-hey,” you panted, letting go of him a bit awkwardly. “I’m sorry for snapping at you yesterday.” You noticed his expression relaxed a little. “You were just trying to fix that asshole’s-” You pointed a thumb back at Pete. “-mistake. I was just frustrated about it, but I shouldn’t have done that. I’m really sorry.”

You held your breath expectantly, waiting for Patrick to accept your apology. His eyes were just as wide as before, as if he was still processing what had just happened.

“Oh, uh, it’s fine, I-I guess,” he stammered out with a small voice, his gaze shooting to the floor to avoid making eye contact with you. You inwardly gushed—you couldn’t think of a person you knew who was cuter than Patrick. You didn’t really know what else to say after that, so you just patted him on the head (he was actually shorter than you) and turned back to Pete, who had his head tilted and absolute confusion written across his face.

“What’s up?” you asked, implying that you were moving on from your previous matter. The bassist decided to drop it, shaking his head and letting out a little laugh.

“So, did you like it?” he said with a smug grin as he zipped up the case his bass was in, already knowing the answer to his question.

“Yeah, actually,” you admitted, looking off to the side and missing the smallest hint of surprise on Pete’s face. “You guys killed it out there.”

“...You really think so?” You turned your gaze back to Pete, the uncertainty in his voice catching you off guard. For every moment you’d spent with him the past two days, you couldn’t recall an instance of him not being, or at least sounding, one hundred percent sure of himself.

You almost let out a laugh when your eyes landed on him. He was smiling at you dumbly with his mouth slightly open, no traces of a smirk present. It was almost cute, you thought.

Until you realized what you’d just said to yourself.

“No, no, no, no,” you muttered to yourself, shaking your head and sticking out in your tongue in disgust. Had you really just thought that?

“Oh…” Pete mumbled, disappointment evident in his voice. Your head shot up, your expression immediately turning apologetic.

“Oh, no! No, not you, oh my god,” you burst out with a blush, your embarrassment bringing that lopsided smile back to his face. “I loved it so much! It was some of the best stuff I’ve ever heard!”

“You’re just fucking with me now,” he snorted, slinging his case over his head and onto his shoulder.

“I’m not!” you laughed, disbelief tinting your voice. You never would have guess he would turn down the chance to rub your compliments in your face. “Where can I get your CD?”

Pete paused for a moment, seemingly formulating some unspoken idea in his head. You rose an eyebrow. That couldn’t be any good.

“I’ll tell you what,” he grinned, leaning in towards you. “I’ll give you a free one if you go on a date with me.”

You rolled your eyes. You _definitely_ hadn’t seen that coming. But. You bit your lip and met his eyes. You couldn’t say you were a little happy about it.

“Do I have to pretend like I’m having a good time?” you kidded with a smirk, shifting your weight onto one foot and putting a hand on your hip.

“Trust me, you won’t have to pretend,” he answered with a wink, pulling a dry, sarcastic laugh from you. “I’ll text you tomorrow.”

“Sounds g-” You were cut off by Pete leaning towards you without any warning and lightly pressing his lips to your cheek. By the time you’d processed what was happening he was already gone, the sound of his heavy footsteps fading down the hallway.

Your hand unconsciously went up to your cheek, which probably should have started on fire at that point. The butterflies swarmed in your stomach. You couldn’t ignore them now. You realized you were going to have to deal with your feelings sooner or later.

Sooner, you decided, a smile uncontrollably tugging at your lips. Definitely sooner.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the super long wait!  
> (i would super appreciate anyone who left a comment btw :)  
> thanks for reading!


	5. Tbh you should have seen this coming

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You get some action.

You managed to handle one day of waking up to Allie practically throwing you off your bed, but two was pushing it. Once again, Allie tore you out of your peaceful sleep with a squeal and a shake, demanding you to tell her what had happened last night. After a few seconds of trying to ignore her and bury your head under the blankets, you gave up and pushed her off with a hard shove.

Sluggishly sitting up and rubbing the sleep out of your eyes, you sent a sharp glare to your roommate. You had seen that coming, getting home late last night and finding Allie passed out on the couch. You’d guessed that she had tried to stay up and wait for you to get home but couldn’t keep herself awake long enough.

After waking yourself up enough to be at least somewhat competent, you told her about how Pete had asked you out on a date. She had flipped out, bombarding you with questions your half-asleep mind didn’t even attempt to keep up with. Eventually, she figured out that she needed to slow it down a little if she wanted to get anything out of you.

Sliding out of bed and throwing a sweatshirt on, you explained that you had no idea what, or even when, your date was going to be.

“Are you kidding me?” Allie groaned as she followed you out of your room and into the kitchen. “How can you not know?”

“Calm down,” you chided, opening the cereal cabinet and pulling out your favorite one. “He said he’d text me today.”

“Well? Has he texted you yet?!” she demanded, the impatience in her voice overflowing. You held back an eye roll as you poured your cereal into a bowl. 

“I just woke up; I didn’t look at my phone yet,” you told her, sitting down next to her at the table after you’d put milk in your bowl.

“Aren’t you excited?” Allie questioned, disbelief coating her words.

“I gweff?” you answered, your voice muffled by the cereal you’d just shoved in your mouth. 

“You’re so impossible…” your roommate mumbled, pushing off of her chair and going back into your room. A moment later she reappeared, your phone in her hand. You just went eating your breakfast, ignoring her huffing. She dropped the phone in front of you, a loud thud ringing off of the table.

“You have new messages,” she stated simply. You groaned, picking up the phone and pressing the power button, knowing it was now or never.

In all honesty, you were beyond anxious for whatever Pete had planned for the two of you. First of all, you couldn’t imagine it not being embarrassing. You mentally cursed yourself—what had you been thinking? You barely even knew him! What would you talk about? And in addition to that, you didn’t even know if you _wanted_ to be in a relationship. Yeah, Pete was attractive, and you knew you couldn’t deny that you were starting to have feelings for him, but you still couldn’t shake the small voice in the back of your head telling you that getting involved with him was a bad idea. Not just so much because you of your nervousness but because of-

“(Y/N)!” Allie burst out, ripping you away from your thoughts. “Are you just gonna sit there and stare at it or what?!” You bit back a curse, opting instead for passive aggressively complying and sliding your phone open.

Ignoring your roommate’s scrutinizing glare, you forced yourself to read the text from Pete while the butterflies from last night slowly started to make their presence known again, but not before you stalled a bit by saving his number to your phone.

You felt your stomach drop as you read the text. All it said was to meet him later tonight at the same store you’d punched him at a couple days ago. What did that mean? He wasn’t going to tell you what you were doing? What were you supposed to expect? What were you supposed to wear? The questioned flooded your head as your mind raced, finding thing after thing to be anxious about.

“Well, what’s it say?” Allie asked, breaking you off from your barrage of dumb questions.

“He just told me to meet him at the store,” you answered, looking up at her helplessly.

“Ooooh, (Y/N),” she teased, raising her eyebrows with a smirk. “How mysterious...”

“I can’t do this, Allie,” you blanched, ignoring her comments. Your roommate paused for a moment before dropping her teasing demeanor and replacing it with a serious look.

“What do you mean you can’t do it?” 

“I-I just… I don’t know,” you mumbled, looking down into your now soggy cereal. “I’m just really, really nervous.”

“Whyyyy?” Allie groaned, rolling her eyes as you let out a small “hmph” at her reaction. “You’re smart, you’re funny, and you’re hot as hell! What do you have to be worried about?”

You let out a little laugh, dismissing her comments with a shake of your head.

“I’m being serious, (Y/N).” 

“It’s just… Besides being nervous about how completely embarrassing this is going to be, I’m…” You paused, trying to get the words out. “I’m scared that it’s going to turn out like last time.”

“Oh my gooood, (Y/N), are you serious?” Allie practically yelled at you, disbelief covering her shrill voice. “I’ve only said like five words to this guy, but I know that there’s no way he can be as big of a douchey, no-life, piece of shit asshole as-”

“Don’t say it,” you snapped, sending a sharp glare her way.

“Alright, alright,” she surrendered, throwing her hands up. “But really, I know it’s not going to turn out like that, and you’re gonna have a great time. Trust me.”

You sighed, knowing that you were far too into this mess to back out now. “Okay,” you said, the smallest of smiles tugging at your lips.

* * *

You showed up at the store five minutes late. 

You had spent at least ten minutes longer than you had expected to pick out what to wear. In addition to your normal indecisiveness, you also had no idea of what kind of place he was going to take you to. Did you need to wear a dress? Would a t-shirt be fine? After changing in and out of at least five different outfits you finally decided on wearing something that would be considered in between dressy and casual, figuring it would be better to shoot for being a little over or underdressed rather than completely off.

Then it took you way too long to force yourself out the door, with the help of Allie practically shoving you into your apartment building’s hallway and slamming the door behind you. Through the wood, she’d wished you goodbye and told you to have fun.

By the time you were actually out on the street you were practically running to the store, slowing to a walk only as it came in sight. You thought that being late was going to be bad enough; you didn’t want to push it by making a total fool of yourself.

As you walked up to the store, trying to stifle your heavy breathing and being thankful that the sun had just gone down and you could hide your flushed face, you saw Pete standing around outside the automatic door, doing something on his phone.

“Hey, Pete!” you called out, causing his head to shoot up from his phone and over to you. “Sorry, I’m late!”

“It’s like five minutes,” he laughed, shoving his phone into his pocket, and giving you a grin. “Don’t worry about it.” You just answered with a smile, running a quick hand through your hair to smooth it out from when you were running.

“So, what are we doing?” you asked, raising an eyebrow and hoping that you wouldn’t regret asking that.

“I’ll show you,” Pete answered simply, a suspicious glint in his eye. Before you could tell him to elaborate, he grabbed your hand and started pulling you down the street. In any normal situation, you most likely would have ripped your hand out of his and cussed him out, but right now your head was in a flurry and you couldn’t do anything but let him lead you along the pavement.

It wasn’t until a handful of seconds later that you finally came to your senses, and your anxieties came rushing back into your head. Where the hell was he taking you? And… he was still holding your hand. You noticed for the first time that your cheeks felt like they were on fire. Your mind was going into overdrive, panic and embarrassment making your heart pound against your chest.

“You okay?” Pete’s voice tore you from thoughts, and your head shot up to meet him with wide eyes, seeing his own were teasing, with just the smallest hint of concern lying in them.

“What?” you burst out dumbly, mentally hitting yourself for making an even bigger fool of yourself.

“I can’t tell if you always act this weird or if it’s just me,” he snorted, casually intertwining his fingers with yours and stepping back to walk alongside you. 

“I don’t act weird!” you snapped, hoping he wouldn’t say anything about the sparks running up your arm and causing your blush to grow even an even deeper red.

“Whatever you say,” he said, obviously trying to smother a laugh at your pointed glare. You let out a huff and felt your nerves slowly start to go away. The anger wiped off of your face, being replaced by a smirk that mimicked Pete’s.

“Okay, maybe I am a little weird sometimes,” you admitted, ignoring Pete sarcastically repeating “a little” under his breath. “But, I mean, at least I didn’t get drunk and go steal a hat.”

“Are you still hung up on that?” he groaned, with a raised eyebrow and a lopsided grin. “Patrick brought it back! What else do you want?”

“I’m just saying,” you laughed, taking your eyes off of him and looking out at the empty sidewalk in front of you. “You know I’m never gonna let you forget that.”

“Never? That’s a pretty long time,” he commented, getting a questioning look from you. “Are you sure you wanna commit to sticking around me for that long?” You watch his smirk grow as you processed what he was trying to get across.

“Oh my god,” you exasperated, using your free hand to facepalm and try and hide the smile tugging at your lips. “That was _not_ deep.” Just as your hand was about to fall back down to your side, Pete tugged on your other hand and turned you to the side, causing you to let out a little yelp.

“Wrong way,” he chuckled as your face gushed red again. You hadn’t even noticed you’d reached the corner and had kept going straight. You stuttered out an apology, avoiding eye contact and the smirk on his face.

“Are we almost there?” you asked, impatiently changing the topic before he could make fun of you. You looked around at your surroundings. The two of you hadn’t been walking around for that long, but you were in a completely different part of town than the store. There were bright neon lights everywhere, and more people were slowly beginning to appear. The smell of cigarette smoke was rampant, and you were sure at least a few of the passersby were drunk.

“One more block,” Pete responded, not picking up on your sudden uneasiness. You hadn’t been to this area for a _long_ time, and for good reasons. Not only was the place a little sketchy, but there was a person or two that frequented here that you did _not_ want to see. And Pete was barely even big enough for you to hide behind, so you figured you couldn’t really rely on him if something went badly.

“Where the hell are you taking me?” you asked with a little laugh, unconsciously holding onto him a little tighter as people began to crowd the pavement. He took a moment to answer, giving you that same lopsided grin before turning away and looking in front of the two of you.

“There,” he said with an arm outstretched, pointing at a neon sign sticking out of a building a few dozen feet away. You read the name, not finding it familiar. But even if you hadn’t heard of it, you still knew what it was. 

A fucking bar. 

“...Are you serious?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for taking so long lol  
> thanks for reading!!!


	6. Pete Wentz ruins your life

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Your date takes some unexpected turns.

“A bar? Are you kidding me?” you grimaced, unweaving your hands from his and placing it on your hip. “You know I’m not even legal, right?”

A smile broke across his face before he covered his mouth with his hand to stifle a laugh at your expression. “Chill,” he snorted, laughing harder as your eyebrow twitched. “You really think I just want to get you drunk?”

“Yes.”

“I’m not that big of a dick!” he argued, another laugh tinging his voice. “Come on, let me show you.” Taking your hand again—you let out a sound of disapproval but still held on—he led you into the building. The smell of cigarette smoke became even stronger, and the place itself was a bit hazy. You coughed, purposely making it loud to rub your displeasure in Pete’s face. His face was turned away from you, but you could practically see him rolling his eyes at you. 

The two of you waded through furniture and people until Pete brought you to a table standing a small distance away from a small stage. Crammed onto the small surface was a drumset, three microphones, and a set of amps.

“There’s a band playing…?” you cautioned, lowering yourself down onto the closer chair, switching your glance back and forth between the stage set up and your date.

“Yep!” Pete affirmed with a toothy grin as he slid into the opposite seat. “Last night, I was thinking, ‘How the hell am I going to keep this girl from ditching me?’” You rose an eyebrow as he kept talking. “And then it hit me—‘I’ve only seen her smile twice, and one of those was during a show. So! If I take her to another show, I _probably_ can’t go wrong.”

 _Damn_ , you thought, biting back a smile, _that was actually really thoughtful_.

“Not gonna lie, you nailed me,” you said, crinkling your eyes with a little laugh. “I mean, besides the fact that we’re at a _bar_.”

“Oh, come ooon,” Pete groaned, dragging out another eye roll to accentuate his words. “You’re, what, a junior in college? And you’re acting like you’ve never been to a bar before.”

You bit your lip, your eyes sliding down to the table. “Well…” 

“Well?” Pete echoed, curiosity tinging his voice as he leaned in closer to you with an impish grin. “Well what?”

“I, uh, used to be a bit of a partier, to be honest,” you admitted, a bashful smile tugging at your mouth while your eyes refused to move up to meet his.

“No fucking way!” he cried out, leaning in again as both his eyes and mouth went wide. “You? For real?”

“Yep… fake ID and everything,” you laughed, the voice in the back of your mind warning you that just maybe this wasn’t the best place to say that. “But, I mean, that was, like, over a year ago,” you added in, hoping he wasn’t getting the wrong idea of you. “I don’t talk to any of those people anymore. Since then I honestly haven’t wanted to drink or anything. Maybe it’ll change by next year, but I can’t really see it happening. So, if you’re thinking I’m gonna go party with you, you’re very, very wrong.” You finally met Pete’s eyes with a light glare, waiting for him to respond. He looked back at you, his eyes still wide but any sign of amusement gone.

“Hey, (Y/N), I know I made a _really_ bad first impression,” he began, a hint of a smile crossing his face. You nodded. “But, I promise I’m not the kind of guy who gets drunk every single night. And, hey, if it makes you feel better, I won’t drink anything tonight. Promise.”

Your face lit up at his offer. “For real?”

“Yep! Just you, me, and the music.” He held out his pinky finger. “Pinky promise.” You just looked at him for a moment before rolling your eyes and wrapping your own pinky around his.

“Thanks.” You paused, a genuine smile growing across your face. “That means a lot.”

“No problem.” He smiled again, but this time you noticed a sort of warmness lying in his eyes. They really were pretty, you remembered, especially when he smiled like that.

“So,” you started, breaking away from his eyes and looking back over to the stage. “Is the band any good?”

“Of course!” Pete burst out immediately, causing your attention to jump back to him with a bit of shock. “First of all—do you really think I’d take you to watch a band that sucked?” You just shrugged with a skimpish grin. “Okay, well, second of all—they’re this group of guys that call themselves Panic-” He paused to write an exclamation point in the air with his forefinger. “-at the Disco. They’re incredible—they’re new to the music scene but their music is already some of the best that I’ve heard.” You listened intently as Pete told you about the band. He went on and on about how great they were, and how he couldn’t believe they hadn’t gained more popularity yet. He told you that they were just barely out of high school, which surprised you the most. You were halfway through college and you’d barely done anything with your life—you couldn’t believe that some kids were making music that—according to Pete—was actually worth listening to.

You tapped your fingernails on the table. Now that he’d hyped you up, you couldn’t wait to hear them play.

“Hey, do you want any food?”

“Food?!” You attention immediately shot to Pete at the mention of your favorite thing in the world. You didn’t even remember to be embarrassed by your reaction until Pete broke out into a fit of laughter.

You felt your face flush red as you tried to defend yourself, but Pete was too busy laughing at you to notice.

“I-I just really like food…” you mumbled, a pout forming on your lips. Pete snorted one last time before looking back up at you with his lopsided smile. 

“So I take it you’re down for anything?”

“Just go get food, you asshole.” You glared at Pete’s smirk as he got up from the table to go order. As soon as he turned, around you pulled out your phone. You pressed the home button and it lit up with messages from Allie. You ran a hand through your hair as you skimmed her messages. God, she could be too much sometimes. 

Tapping your fingers against your phone, you typed up a half-assed response to answer a few of her questions, saying you would tell her the rest when you got home. After that was sent, you shoved your phone back in your purse as Pete came back with baskets full of food.

“Oh my god…” You felt your mouth water just looking at it. “Is it bad that I’m more excited for this than the band?”

* * *

After you and Pete had finished the food (you’d be lying if you said you hadn’t inhaled it) the band was just setting up. The bar had become significantly more crowded than it had been before, with all the tables filled and some people even standing. Your excitement to hear them grew as the minutes ticked on.

“They all have the same hair…” you whispered to Pete as they were tuning their instruments and getting ready to begin. 

“I know!” he laughed in response, glancing over to them. “I still haven’t figured out if they did it on purpose or not.” You snorted and shook your head.

“Hey, everyone!” An amplified voice broke your attention away from Pete and over to the band. “My name is Brendon, and this-” He pointed a thumb at a young-looking guy holding a guitar. “-is Ryan. And that’s Jon on the bass, and Spencer back there. And we’re Panic! at the Disco!” The crowd, along with you and Pete, cheered for them. Brendon said a few more introductions before the first chord rang out, and their performance began.

You turned to Pete halfway through their first song. It sounded nothing like his band, that was for sure, but it amazed you just as much as his songs had. With the music blasting through the air, you mouthed that you loved it, holding up a thumbs up in case he couldn’t understand.

He replied by matching your thumbs up with a huge smile.

In no time you were tapping your foot and nodding your head to the beat, soaking in the energy from the music and just enjoying how much fun the band was having playing for everyone. Every once in a while you and Pete would sneak looks at each other. Every time you made eye contact with him the butterflies in your stomach would come back and a smile would flutter to your lips.

At one point through the night Pete’s hand smoothly reached over to yours, and you let him intertwine his fingers with yours.

You were pretty sure your blush was noticeable even in the dim bar lighting.

 

* * *

As soon as the band finished their set and said good night, you, along with everyone else in the building, were on their feet clapping. After that, everyone filed out pretty quickly, it was getting late, leaving only a few groups of people left in the bar. You turned to Pete.

“That was amazing,” you said, the adrenaline from the music still coursing through your veins. Pete answered you with a grin.

“I know right? They’re-”

“They’re, like, better than your band.”

“Woah, woah, woah.” He threw his hands up, a pouty frown on his face. “That’s not true.” You let out a dry laugh and rolled your eyes.

“Sure…”

“They are _not better_ than F-”

“Do you think I can talk to them?” you asked, cutting him off and looking over to the four band members, All of them were packing up their equipment and talking idly with one another.

“Huh?” Pete followed your gaze over to them, the pout leaving his face. “Yeah, if you wanna.” He stood up from his chair and motioned for you to follow him. “Hey, guys!” The four brunets looked up in unison, all breaking into smiles once they saw who it was.

“‘Sup, Pete,” Brendon grunted as he flipped the latches up on his guitar case, sending him a nod.

“I didn’t know you got a girlfriend, man?” Ryan chimed in from behind Brendon, glancing at you. “Nice.”

You jumped in before Pete could.

“Oh, no, no,” you countered, shaking your head and waving your arms in an x-formation. “We’re just…” You took a second to think. “...Friends?” You turned to Pete. “Are we friends?”

He just looked at you, exasperated. “Of course we’re friends!”

“But are we really?”

“Yes!” With a shrug, you turned back toward Brendon and Ryan just in time to see them share a look before Brendon opened his mouth.

“Are you sure you guys aren’t friends with bene-” 

This time, Pete was quicker than you, shutting Brendon up by hitting up upside the head while you let out a groan. Their music had been so good that you’d forgotten they were immature kids, barely out of high school.

“Anyways…” you sighed, getting back to why you’d come over there. “I just wanted to tell you guys that you were awesome.” Brendon and Ryan shared another look, before they both replied with wide smiles and sincere thank-yous. 

You told them you were looking forward to hearing them play again and bid your adieus. You and Pete left the bar, walking out into the frisk air, significantly colder than a few hours prior. You inhaled deeply, replenishing your lungs with fresh oxygen that wasn’t contaminated by smoke.

You and Pete had walked for about a block, chatting aimlessly, when he took your hand and pulled you down to sit on the edge of the sidewalk.

“So,” he started, a smile pulling at his mouth while he talked, “Have you forgiven me yet?”

“Ehhh…” you drawled out, the smallest hint of a smirk making its way onto your face. “You’re trying pretty hard, so I think I’d be kind of a dick if I said no.” 

“Well,” Pete laughed, shaking his head a bit, “I guess I’ll take that if it’s the best I’m gonna get.”

“Seriously though.” Your smirk faded and a soft smile spread across your lips as your eyes wandered to the street. “You’ve done more than enough to make it up to me.” You looked down at your knees. “Even though I have no idea why.”

“Are you serious?” Pete said from beside you, the warmness from before melting into his voice. Before you could articulate an answer, you felt his hand cup your cheek, heating up your skin as he turned you to face him.

You met his eyes, a bit of a pout back on his face. Neither of you said a word for what seemed like forever, until Pete opened his mouth.

“You’re b-”

You interrupted him with a gasp. You’re blood ran cold as your eyes shifted off of Pete and focused on a man walking down the sidewalk towards the two of.

“What, (Y/N)? What’s wrong?”

You barely heard Pete as your mind went into panic mode. That couldn’t possibly be who you thought it was. But—you looked again—it was. 

“P-Pete,” you stammered out, your heart rate speeding up along with your breathing, “we have to go. We need to go r-right now.” You tried to get up, but Pete stopped you by placing both of his hands on your shoulders.

“Hey, slow down, (Y/N),” he urged, concern flooding his eyes. “Tell me what’s wrong.”

“D-do you remember how I said I-I don’t talk to any of my partier friends anymore?” you gulped, feeling your hands start to shake. “The reason why is w-walking straight towards us, and w-we really need to leave.”

“Okay, okay, then let’s g-”

“(Y/N)!” You felt tears spring to your eyes as the man’s voice slurred behind you. Pete stood up to face him, pulling you up with him. You looked out in front of you, meeting your ex-boyfriend drunken glare. “What the fuck are you doing here?” You were practically punching yourself mentally, screaming at yourself to bite back at him or punch him or _anything_ , but all you could do was stare down at the sidewalk and swallow hard.

Just hearing his voice brought back vile memories you thought you’d thrown away long ago, but there they were, resurfacing in your head one after another. All the names he’d called you, everything you had called yourself because of him, every one-sided fight you’d been a victim of hit you like a sack of bricks. You wanted to throw up.

“What the hell, man?” He was talking to Pete now. “Why are you wasting your time with _her_?”

You thought you heard Pete yell something at him, but your ears were ringing as every insecurity you had the past year decided to show itself. The tears brimming your eyes spilled over and soaked your face.

“I KNOW!” you screamed, unknowingly breaking Pete off. “I know I’m-I’m ugly, and I’m stupid, and I’m worthless, okay?! Can you just leave me alone?!” You were practically hyperventilating at this point. You couldn’t take anymore. You turned to Pete, not looking up to meet his eyes.

“Look, I don’t know w-what idea you have of me, but you’re wrong. You’re so wrong. I’m sorry you wasted your time on me. I’m so sorry.” Ignoring his protests, you turned and sprinted down the street, not even bothering to wipe your face as you ran in took random turns, just wanting to get as far away as possible.

You choked on a sob, your footsteps fading away until you were completely gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> >:)


	7. thanks pete

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maybe things will turn out okay for you.

A sigh escaped your lips as you propped your elbows up on the counter. Once again, you were back at your job, free of your boss this time, so you could sigh to your heart’s content. You rubbed your eyes, your headache from a few days ago starting to make its presence known again.

Last night you had stormed home in a mess, tears still leaking out of your eyes as you made your way through your front door. This time Allie had actually managed to stay awake to wait for you to come home and tell her what had all happened on your date, but you had already disappeared into your room and slammed the door shut before she could even fire off a question. You silently thanked her for taking a hint (for once) and not following you, leaving you to force your thoughts to shut up so you could at least get a little sleep before you had to go into the store.

If things had been up to you, you wouldn’t have even come into work today, but you were the only one working and there was no one who could fill in for you. The events of last night were still fresh in your mind, and you had just wanted to stay in bed, buried in a pile of blankets and never talk to anyone again, but you had responsibilities you couldn’t ignore. So, you had forced yourself to get up from your mattress, scrub the smeared makeup off of your face, and sulk out the door to work.

You’d moped around for hours, miserably waiting for your shift to be over so you could trudge back home and crawl back under your blankets. Fortunately, as slowly as the minutes had ticked by, eventually they did, and after what had felt like years, you were only ten minutes away from freedom.

You idly gazed across the store. It was rare to see the place so clean, since you were convinced customers purposely tried to mess up the displays as much as possible. But you’d wanted your mind to stay occupied, so you had focused yourself on fixing every little thing you could find wrong. Now there was nothing left to do, so you were just standing at the counter, waiting for the clock to hit 10:00. 

Last night was seeping into your mind again. You buried your face in your hands. You knew that you’d overreacted, and you couldn’t even fathom ever facing Pete again. You’d even left your phone at home today, not wanting to know whether or not he had tried to get a hold of you. You kind of hoped he had, but you didn’t think you could gather up the energy to answer him if he that was true.

The bell connected to the front door sounded off, pulling you out of your thoughts and whipping your head up to the other side of the room. You felt your mouth drop open as Pete walked into the shop. A squeak left your mouth as you shot down behind the counter, pressing your knees against your chest and scooting up against the wood.

You blanched. That was really _him_. You held your breath. Maybe he hadn’t seen you. Maybe he would just assume you weren’t here and leave. _Yeah_ , you reassured yourself, _he’ll just leave, and I’ll never see him ag-_

“You know this hiding spot sucks, right?” You let out a yelp, head whipping up to see Pete’s head popping out over the top of the counter. 

You stared up at Pete, trying to say something, but your mind was too frazzled to string any words together, so you just sat there opening and closing your mouth like an idiot. 

“Hey,” he laughed, moving over to your side of the counter and sitting next to you. You turned away from him. You couldn’t bear to look him in the eye after what had happened, but you managed to gather yourself enough to form words. 

“Why did you come here?” you mumbled, boring holes into your knees. 

“Well, I had to talk to you _somehow_...”

Your head moved up the slightest bit as an almost invisible smile crossed your lips. 

“But really,” he continued straight to the point before you could come up with a response, “What the hell happened last night? What was that guy's problem?”

You swallowed hard, trying to get a glimpse of his expression out of the corner of your eye. You could feel his honey eyes on you, concern pooling thickly in them. You turned your chin slowly and smoothly, until your eyes were locked with his.

Your breathing hitched with anxiety. Everyone knew that you and your ex-boyfriend had broken up on bad terms, but you never told people why. He had cheated on you, and then dumped you aside like nothing once you’d found out. You couldn’t bear to put up with the humiliation that came with it, so you’d kept it locked up inside of you for the past year, bottling up your pain and forcing it down.

But things were different now that Pete was here. You hadn’t even known him for a week, but already he had made you feel better than anyone had in a long time. You’d always believed that there would never be anyone you could open up to. You couldn’t explain it, but if you were going to give anyone the key, you knew it was going to be Pete.

You let out a sigh as your face turned back to your knees, and you scooted over a bit until your shoulder was pressed up against Pete’s. 

“He’s my ex-boyfriend, if you couldn’t tell,” you began softly, absentmindedly messing with the hem of your jeans.

“I figured.”

“We broke up about a year ago. He cheated on me.”

“That’s rough.” You looked back over at Pete. His eyes moved to the ground for a second before resting back on you. You noticed a hint of sadness twisting his expression. “Same thing happened to me a while back.”

You felt your eyes go wide. _He_ had been cheated on? The same guy who’d gone out of his way to fix his stupid mistake? Who’d (not counting your first meeting) had been nothing but considerate to you? Who’d come found you and was currently sitting behind a counter on the floor with you, trying to comfort you?

“That… that doesn’t make sense…” you uttered. puzzlement written across your face. “How could anyone cheat on you?”

Pete sighed, a bitter-sounding laugh escaping his mouth. “How could anyone cheat on anyone? It’s not like there’s a real excuse for it.” At that, you shook your head the slightest bit, your eyes shifting back to the floor.

“I mean…” you mumbled, trying to fit the right words together, “I know it wasn’t my fault or anything, but… I just—it wouldn’t have happened if I would have been a better girlfriend.”

“Don’t say th-”

“I should have been prettier. Funnier. Smarter. I don’t even know why he liked me in the first place.” You started to feel hot tears welling up in your eyes as you hugged your knees closer to your chest. “The girl he cheated on me with—she was so gorgeous. She was so much better than me. I can’t figure out why he even bothered to stay with m-”

You were cut off by Pete’s hand sharply, but somehow still gently, tugging your chin towards him. Through tear-stained vision, you could see his eyebrows scrunched together, a stubborn pout pressing on his lips.

“Do you seriously think that?” he whispered lowly, so softly that you almost didn’t catch it. His hand still cupping your chin, you nodded slowly.

The past year you’d been in a constant state of arguing with yourself, a voice in the back of your mind telling you over and over again that you weren’t worth anything, that you’d deserved everything that had happened to you. Over time, you would build your confidence back up, fighting to convince yourself that you _were_ worth something, only to have it torn down again.

“Do you not see yourself?” Pete’s hand moved up to your cheek, his thumb wiping a stray tear away. “Because what I see is fucking beautiful.

“Do you really not think you’re good enough? For what? Some douchebag who treated you like shit? You’re worth a hundred of him. You don’t have to be better than someone else—you’re amazing in your own way. Life isn’t a competition of who’s prettier. There’s so much more than that, so much more to _you_ than that.

“I know we haven’t known each other that long, but I just—I know you’re something special. Maybe you’re ex couldn’t see it, but, to me, there’s something about you, something that was telling me I couldn’t let you get away. 

“I mean...” Pete finally paused, the serious look leaving his face for a moment and being replaced by the smallest bit of uncertainty. “Only if that’s cool with you.”

By this point you were sniffling, the words you’d never dreamed of hearing sounding over and over again in your head. You almost laughed at the look on his face, a smiling pulling at the corners of your lips.

“You’re not drunk right now, are you?”

“Seriously?! It was _one_ time,” Pete exasperated, his own mouth starting to curl upwards. With a roll of his eyes, he took his hand off your cheek and moved it to your shoulder, pulling you in closer to him. You rested your head against his shoulder, hoping your blushing wasn’t too obvious.

“Well…” you said, biting your lip. “I think you’re pretty great too.”

“Oh, really?” You could hear the smirk in his voice.

“I guess,” you kidded for a moment, before lifting your head up to look at him. “But I mean it. I don’t want to let you get away either.” Your heart melted as that same warm smile spread across Pete’s face, crinkling his honey eyes.

“Thank god,” he sighed, a laugh tinging his voice. “It would have sucked if you’d chased me out of the store again or something.”

“I didn’t chase you out! You fucking r-”

You were cut off by him again, only this time he interrupted you by pressing his lips into yours. You got over your moment of shock and wrapped your arms around him. You couldn’t help but smile into the kiss. It felt right.

It felt like, just maybe, things would turn out okay this time. For both of you.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (This is going to be really long sorry)  
> Okay, first of all-I'm so so so so so so sorry this took me so long to update (especially for it being the last chapter) But, in my defense I've been at concerts the past week. I know I said I was going to have this done a week ago, but I was out of town (for a FOB concert) and our hotels wifi didn't work :( Also I was suuuuper tired from the concert (it was amazing though!!!!!!! Pete was hot af and also I started sobbing about Andy at Waffle House at like 1 in the morning) And then a day after we got back I went to go see Frank Iero and his band (which was also amazing and I cried and he signed my Catcher in the Rye book and told me he had the same one :')   
> SO post-concert blues hit me really hard hahaha but I got a lot of comments telling me to update so I finally stopped being lazy and wrote it! So thank you so much to all of you who've been reading along and thanks for putting up with my laziness :) This is my first fanfic ever and all the people that left kudos and comments mean so much to me <3333   
> thank you for reading my dumb fic <33333333


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